JANESVILLE 鈥 Officials at Rotary Botanical Gardens hope a new concession and restroom building will bring hot cocoa and comfort to visitors at the outdoor gardens鈥 annual holiday light show.
That鈥檚 the plan, Rotary Gardens Executive Director Becky Kronberg said, for a 900-square-foot comfort station with a castle-like tower that would pop out of a hillside on the 20-acre gardens鈥 edge.
Designs show what looks like an earthen dwelling built into a green hillside along the gardens鈥 northeast side facing Sharon Road鈥攁 stone hut along a gravel path that gives way to a spire rising from the hillside above an arched, wooden door.
Kronberg said the whimsical building isn鈥檛 a portal into novelist J.R.R. Tolkien鈥檚 鈥淟ord of the Rings鈥 fantasy realm. Rather, she said, the building is designed as a respite for visitors to the massively popular Holiday Light Show.
Kronberg said a local contractor aims to begin earth-moving in a few weeks, and the stone-and-earth concession and rest stop 鈥渉opefully鈥 will be open in time for the 2023 light show.
The massively popular November and December light show draws thousands of people a night to see more than a million holiday lights strung throughout the gardens, but the gardens鈥 farthest-flung corners, hundreds of feet east of the main entrance, have never had a restroom.
The new building鈥檚 four restrooms, which Kronberg calls the building鈥檚 鈥減rimary purpose,鈥 could get use year-round by visitors and gardens staff and volunteers who find themselves on the fringes of the gardens.
But the building鈥檚 earth-sheltered part鈥攖he hut-in-the-hillside鈥攚ill provide a pleasing pit stop to visitors. Kronberg said the building would have a small concession operation that Rotary Gardens would operate mainly during the holiday light show鈥檚 monthlong run.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rotary Gardens has limited most access to its main buildings during the Holiday Light Show.
鈥淭he one thing that we haven鈥檛 been able to do as well is concessions. People love hot chocolate and cookies at the light show. It just makes the experience a little bit more fun,鈥 Kronberg said.
She said the new restroom and concession building would be set halfway through the show, providing what she called a sweet 鈥減it stop鈥 for guests. The building鈥檚 tower, which will be accessible by a trail that wraps around the concession stand and hillside, allows views of the Rotary Gardens pond鈥攁 glowing centerpiece of the light show.
The privately operated, nonprofit Rotary Gardens did not give an estimated project cost for the building. A single private donor who agreed to front the construction cost asked to remain anonymous, Kronberg said.
The Rotary Gardens opens for the season Saturday.